The Renaissance of Modern Hebrew and Modern Standard Arabic: Parallels and Differences in the Revival of Two Semitic Languages (UC Publications in Near Eastern Studies)

Arts & Photography

Blau, Joshua

History & Criticism

University of California Press

More than 80 years have passed since Bauer and Leander’s historical grammar of Biblical Hebrew was published, and many advances in comparative historical grammar have been made during the interim. Joshua Blau, who has for much of his life been associated with the Academy of the Hebrew Language in Jerusalem, has during the past half century studied, collected data, and written frequently on various aspects of the Hebrew language.
Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew had its origins in an introduction to Biblical Hebrew first written some 40 years ago; it has now been translated from Modern Hebrew, thoroughly revised and updated, and it distills a lifetime of knowledge of the topic. The book begins with a 60-page introduction that locates Biblical Hebrew in the Semitic family of languages. It then discusses various approaches to categorization and classification, introduces and discusses various linguistic approaches and features that are necessary to the discussion, and provides a background to the way that linguists approach a language such as Biblical Hebrew—all of which will be useful to students who have taken first-year Hebrew as well those who have studied Biblical Hebrew extensively but have not been introduced to linguistic study of the topic.
After a brief discussion of phonetics, the main portion of the book is devoted to phonology and to morphology. In the section on phonology, Blau provides complete coverage of the consonant and vowel systems of Biblical Hebrew and of the factors that have affected both systems. In the section on morphology, he discusses the parts of speech (pronouns, verbs, nouns, numerals) and includes brief comments on the prepositions and waw. The historical processes affecting each feature are explained as Blau progresses through the various sections. The book concludes with a complete set of paradigms and extensive indexes.
Blau’s recognized preeminence as a Hebraist and Arabist as well as his understanding of language change have converged in the production of this volume to provide an invaluable tool for the comparative and historical study of Biblical Hebrew phonology and morphology.

Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew (Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic)

History

Ancient Civilizations

Eisenbrauns

A grammar of biblical Hebrew (Porta linguarum Orientalium : Neue Serie)

Reference

O. Harrassowitz

A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (Porta linguarum orientalium, Neue Serie, Band 12)

Words, Language & Grammar

Otto Harrassowitz

In the Middle Ages, Jews in Arab lands used both Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew as their literary languages. Mediaeval Judaeo-Arabic texts are written in Middle Arabic, which contains classical and later elements. The latter do not appear in standard dictionaries of Classical Arabic, and it is to these post-classical, neo-Arabic, and pseudo-correct terms and expressions, which to a great extent are identical with Middle Arabic elements found in other Arabic writings of the period, that Joshua Blau's Dictionary of Mediaeval Judaeo-Arabic Texts is primarily devoted. The Dictionary is based largely on the works of the leading Jewish scholars of the period, including Saadia Gaon, Judah Halevi, and Maimonides, but it also refers to the Responsa literature, legal documents, and personal and commercial letters. This first comprehensive dictionary of Mediaeval Judaeo-Arabic contains about 9,000 entries. The lemmas are presented in both Arabic and Hebrew scripts, and are translated into Hebrew and English. A special section is devoted to lexicographical literature.

Dictionary of Mediaeval Judaeo-arabic Texts (Judeo Arabic Edition)

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Israel Academy of Sciences

The Tafsir - the translation of the Torah into Arabic by Saadya Gaon, the dominant figure in shaping Judaeo-Arabic culture in the Middle Ages - is one of the most important works to have been produced by that glorious culture. Saadya's translation is a freer one than any other with which we are familiar. He diverges quite frequently from a literal rendering of the text, expressing a great many innovative and original hermeneutic notions. The present studies by Prof. Joshua Blau deal with Saadya's distinctive ideas, as expressed (among other things) in his numerous divergences from the literal meaning of the Hebrew original and in the connections he draws between different passages. Saadya's translation refers often to the sequence of the text and points to conceptual relationships between the verses, sometimes widely separated ones in different sections of the text. Joshua Blau is one of the most distinguished scholars of Judaeo-Arabic in general and of Saadya's translation in particular. The publication of the first volume of his studies of the Tafsir, on the Book of Genesis, marks his 100th birthday.

Notes on R. Saadya Gaon's Translation of the Torah, Part I - Genesis (Hebrew Edition)

World

Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities

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